Serve and Protect

by Douglas Varnell

  He really hated to leave, he had so much fun in his two days, but he knew that there was a lot to do back on Verron. He told Major Henderson that when he got back to Verron that he would be commanding and developing the new Crotch Rocket division and that he needed to make contact with Kary Verron for both the weapon systems and the manufacturing of the crotch rockets. He couldn’t wait to tell his little brother; Mechanized Infantry was definitely moving into a new age. Paul smiled thinking about the old Chuck Norris movie where he rode a motorcycle that fired missiles and had a machinegun. He could picture the movies remake.

  Chapter 7

  Things were getting boring on Verron. With Hunter in Virginia, Amber in Colorado, Katelyn and Tala still in Australia, Hon IV on Klelta, Cali on Tecalna and Camil somewhere on Earth doing undercover work for Vlad, it didn’t take long for Chase and Daniel to want something to do. They started working on an armed version of the crotch rocket and in a few days they had increased the out of atmosphere speed to .8 LS. With zero resistance to deal with, the little rocket could reach some tremendous speeds. They managed to hit Mach 2 before it became impossible to hold onto inside Verron’s atmosphere. There was no way it could be ridden at that speed without the added strength of the body armors exoskeleton. Daniel’s brilliance came up with an idea for mounting a laser to the bottom of the rocket that could slice through the metal skin of a spaceship, allowing them to breach the hull during an assault.

  The two boys had been the hit of Fay and Kay’s pool party. It was really the first time in a very long time that they had been in a social situation with a group of teens their own age. When the music began playing, Daniel was a bit shy about dancing, but Chase was a dancing machine, often doing his Jxansa Gha exercises to music when no one was around. He got the idea from Xhing Li who claimed she got the idea from King Verron when he was on Xhondar I. Having grown-up in a house with four sisters, Chase was much more comfortable around girls than Daniel who only had MJ2 to deal with, and soon he was the center of attention with his breakdance moves and unbelievable acrobatics and teaching the girls dance steps he had learned from his sisters. Finally both boys were dancing with the twins. Neither was sure which one was which, but both knew they were smitten by one of them, or maybe both, it was hard to tell.

  When things began to mellow-out and the band took a break, Daniel claimed the keyboard and began to entertain the party with his playing and singing. Chase soon joined him on the guitar and the band members moved in to add the bass and drums. No one could believe that this was King Verron’s two nephews; the other kids finally realized that they were just teenagers like them. That evening when the other guests were gone, Chase and Daniel walked hand-in-hand along the lakeshore with their favorite twin. It was a momentous occasion, the first time either boy had kissed a girl. Their life would never be the same. They made plans to go backpacking in the nearby mountains for the next day. Daniel, quick to try and please and impress, suggested, “Why don’t we hike the coastal mountains. I’ll bet neither of you have even seen them.” Both Fay and Kay quickly became enthusiastic about the idea. He continued, “We’ll pick you up at 0900 and fly us out there.” After another toe curling kiss, the boys headed home.

  The next morning they landed on the front pad of Morgensson’s home in a Light Destroyer. Their father and mother shook their head as their two little girls boarded a military aircraft with two Princes to go on a picnic and day of hiking. This wasn’t their first date out with a boy in a vehicle, but this was a bit over the top; only on Verron. The twin’s mother laughed and joked with her husband, “Well, at least they will be safe.” Her husband, with a typical fatherly attitude, replied, “At least from anything outside the ship.” When they were out of sight of the house Chase decided to waste no time getting to their destination, they were soon flashing across Robert’s Range at Mach 20, headed for the west coast. Fay and Kay had been around airplanes their entire life in Sweden, where their father had been an aircraft designer for the Saab Group. They were 2nd cousins of Donald Williamsson and grew up with a family of engineers, designers and pilots. At sixteen, they were licensed flyers of Verron personal transports and were used to flying sub-sonic speeds in the family vehicle. The girls were elated to see how quickly the mountains flashed by as they headed west. Neither twin, like most of Verron’s population, had been west of the farming district. The new Kurdish, Iraqi and Syrian residents were the first to venture to the western coast and they were settled more to the south, where the climate and smaller mountains more closely resembled the Mediterranean Coast; except lusher, greener and no shortage of fresh water. The area these four were headed to was a good thousand miles north of the new settlement. As Chase backed off the speed for an approach to the coast, it revealed a breath-taking view. Tropical Jungles ran north and south along the coast for thousands of miles and inland for as far as the distance between L.A. and Oklahoma City. Triple canopy jungles, jagged mountain terrain and more rivers and streams than you could count covered nearly a million square miles along the western coast of the continent. Some of the trees were as tall as skyscrapers on Earth and were as big around as well. No one was certain about the wildlife that called these jungles home, but with the swamps and woods below, the boys had no doubt there were things living there that you didn’t want to meet. The jungles ran all the way to the edge of the rocky coastline and even covered thousands of small islands that ranged from a few yards to a few miles off the coast.

  Chase navigated the Light Destroyer to one of the many beaches below the cliffs and the four adventurers immediately made their way to the crystal clear water lapping against the white sand. They walked for a couple of miles along the beach until they came to a mountain formation that extended out beyond the beach and three or four thousand feet to the crest above. Kay led the way through the thick vegetation and up the rocks in between. By the time they reached the top they were starved and decided to enjoy the scenic beauty of the coast from their vantage point overlooking the island, beaches, jungles and river cutting through the mountain on the opposite side. It reminded them of pictures they had seen of Hawaii, the rainforests of Malaysia or the Amazon jungles. After enjoying the view for a while they decided to follow the cliffs edge to the north as far as they could travel. They soon came to a water fall flowing from the side of the mountain into the river below. It was at least a quarter mile across the mouth of the river and they could clearly see caves and interesting rock formations on the other side. Fay seemed disappointed that it was the end of the line. They looked out across the ocean and could see an island that formed just off the coast. It also looked interesting, with its waterfalls and rock formations that extended only a few hundred feet out of the water. No one wanted to turn around so, boys being boys, Chase and Daniel decided to impress the girls. Each took their girl by the hand and made a jump across the river to the scenic overhang on the other side.

  The girls were so taken by surprise that they backed away from the boys in fear. Daniel tried to explain, but Fay was to shaken to pay any attention. Finally Chase decided to put an end to their hysterical companions. He took both of them by the arm and said, “If you two don’t stop that whining I’ll take you home right now and Daniel and I will chalk today off as a bad idea. But, I want to ask you. Exactly what did you expect from two members of the Dragon Guard? Hasn’t your father ever talked about how different we are from other people?” Kay shyly looked up at him, and replied, “But at our party you acted so normal. I guess we expected you to act like any other boys.” Daniel was not going to let Chase be the only one who spoke and jumped right into the conversation, saying, “Me and Chase really do want to date you, but we’re not going to pretend we’re like everybody else. If you’re not interested, we’ll take you home now, but if you think you can deal with guys that are a bit different then we’d like to keep seeing you.” Fay, had a curious look on her face, and asked, “We thought it was different enough to date two cousins that are also members of the Verron roy
al family; how different are you?”

  Chase smiled and looked at Daniel, both shrugged and Daniel said, “You first.” Chase looked at the girls and said, “King Verron and the Dragon Guard have abilities that no one else has. Part of the reason we didn’t go to school with the rest of the kids our age is because we have been training and educating ourselves in a very unique way. We’re teenage boys, with normal teenage desires, he grinned at Fay and raised his eyebrows with a leer, however, we have been taught things by King Verron that are only to be used to protect those who need our help or to protect ourselves. I guess if you’re going to date us, you need to know exactly who you’re dating. We would appreciate it if you keep this to yourself. Because we don’t want to be looked at as freaks by all the other people we meet.”

  Chase turned to Daniel as he said, “You first.” Daniel looked at a large boulder that had broken off from a formation above and was covering part of the clearing where they stood. As the girls watched in amazement it began to rise and float out across the ocean. When it was about 200 yards away, Chase threw a plasma ball at it and vaporized it in midair. Daniel then created a waterspout while Chase made a lightning storm above it. When finished, Chase looked at the girls and informed them, “What we did a while ago is called jumping. We can teleport anywhere on Verron by doing that. We could have actually brought you here today without the spaceship, but thought it would more appropriate to fly like normal people.” Kay began to laugh, saying, “Normal people do not use a battle ship to pick-up their girlfriends for a date.” Chase couldn’t help but notice that she had referred to them as their girlfriends.” Daniel smiled, and in defense said, “The Dragon Wagon and the other transports were busy and we couldn’t all fit in a Fighter. Fay began to laugh this time, “Dragon Wagon, Transports, Fighters, and Light Destroyers, you two are different in cute sort of way.” Daniel liked the cute part, and felt more confident when he told them, “We can promise you will never get bored with us, but you will have to accept the fact that we’re not like the other boys who were at your party. We’ve fought in alien wars in outer space, fought terrorists on Earth and battled monster sized creatures on other planets. We design weapons systems for King Verron and just finished installing a defensive missile system for Israel, where we were attacked in our hotel room by an Islamic hit squad. We can also be called at a moment’s notice by King Verron to go anywhere or do anything. So there may be occasions where we disappear for weeks or months at a time. We were on Earth this last time for nearly six months.”

  Fay had finally calmed down and reached over and kissed Daniel softly on the cheek, saying, “I like different. Let’s have some fun.” Chase took Kay’s hand and Daniel took Fay’s and they jumped to the island just off the coast. Inland, under one of the waterfalls, they all took a swim. The boys had to show off their bravery by diving off the cliffs into the lake below. The twins were not going to be outdone. They both climbed to the same spot and did a full gainer side-by-side into the water below. As everyone sat around, the boys listened to the girls talk about themselves for a while. Kay spoke, saying, “We aren’t exactly normal either. That party was held just so people would stop thinking of us as weird. Most guys look at us and only see two cute blonds, and usually only think about one thing. The problem is we both make straight A’s, and don’t even watch TV. We used to be on a synchronized dive team back in Sweden and on the swim team; we play soccer, downhill and cross country ski, took karate for ten years, run cross country and play tennis.” Fay jumped in, adding, “Don’t forget to tell them about the guns, rock climbing and spelunking.” Kay, continued, “I guess we’re as weird as you two.” Daniel was talking more than Chase had ever seen him speak, and asked, “Have you ever been scuba diving?” The girls shook their heads no, and he continued, adding, “When would you like us to teach you?”

  It was getting late and the four were heading back home. They made the jump directly from the island lake to the beach where the ship was parked. Lying stretched out beside the Destroyer was some kind of a creature that did not look overly friendly. It was almost as long as the ship and as big around as tractor-trailer truck, supported by six legs and protected by a tough looking hide. Chase imagined it as Verron’s version of an alligator, except much bigger. When they tried to move around behind it and head for the ship, it turned quickly and opened its garage door sized mouth, exposing triple rows of razor sharp teeth. Neither boy worried about themselves, the girls were their only concern. Chase used The Power to create a big plasma ball and was about to release it, when both girls said, “No, don’t kill it. It’s just doing what animals do, he shouldn’t die for it.” Daniel then decided that he would do something to please them. He levitated the creature into the air about thirty feet above them. As if squirmed and wriggled in rebellion, he transported it out over the ocean and let it fall with a huge splash. Before the extremely angry creature could swim back to shore, they boarded the ship and shut the hatch. The fast moving beast had covered over 200 yards of water and 50 yards of beech in the time it took them to run sixty feet and board the ship. It began to slam into the side of the Destroyer and even pushed it across the sandy beach. As Daniel lifted off, he could feel the extra weight of the creature as it clamped onto the landing skids with its big jaws and wouldn’t let go. Finally, when the creature was a good 20 feet off the ground, Daniel headed for the cliffs above the ocean and slammed the determined animal into the rock wall, jarring it loose from the ship’s skids and falling into the ocean. They waited around to make certain it was uninjured and found out something else unique about the monster; it could climb like a lizard. As they looked out the ship’s window the stubborn pursuer began to scurry up the side of the solid rock face of the cliffs like a bug on a wall, snapping its teeth in hopes of getting another chance at the thing flying away. Chase had the good sense to hit the audio/video system and recorded the animal for review by Tlase and her new staff of zoologist. As they were flying away they also found out that Fay wanted to be a zoologist and biologist. The boys now knew why she wouldn’t let them simply blast it.

  It was getting late as they headed across Verron and Chase suddenly had an idea. He asked, “Would you like to see the most beautiful sunset you’ve ever seen?” Kay and Fay were pretty much game for anything during these next couple of hours before they were due home. Chase whispered in Daniel’s ear and he told everyone, “Strap in, this will be a real treat.” He set the trajectory and accelerated toward outer-space. He made the ascent slow enough not to make the girls black-out, but it only took twenty minutes before they were looking down on Verron below. Both girls were shaking with excitement at their first trip into outer-space. Daniel maneuvered the Destroyer around the planet to a position that placed Verron between the ship, the red moon and the sun on the other side. Looking at them from this angle, the moon looked almost on fire and Verron was accented with a red ring completely surrounding the planet. It was even prettier than Chase and Daniel had planned. He had the ships computer take pictures. Daniel placed the ship into an orbital position facing the brilliant sunset. Fay came over and snuggled into the seat next to Daniel. Kay was soon sitting with Chase. As they held each other close and kissed, they admired the most incredible sunset any of them had ever seen. Chase almost lost his breath with Kay so close and smelling so good. Even after climbing mountains and swimming in the island lake, she smelled wonderful. Daniel was permanently addicted to the feel of Fay’s body next to his. He didn’t ever want to take her home. But when your seventeen and the girls you’re out with are sixteen, all good things must come to an end. It was exactly five minutes before their curfew when the Light Destroyer landed back in their front landing pad. The boys politely escorted the girls to the door and thought they looked incredible with the tropical flowers they had picked sticking from their blond hair, long tan legs and muscular arms. It had been a perfect day and neither girl cared that their dad was sneaking a peek out the window when they kissed the boys goodnight. As they went into
the house they were thinking, “After a first date like this, we can’t wait for the next one.”

  While dad was moping in the living room over his two girls growing up, the girls were in the kitchen telling their mother everything that happened. The boys didn’t realize that Mrs. Morgensson was the new staff Zoologist and Biochemical Engineer that worked for Tlase. The girls were very much aware of what their mother did and had often been on field trips with her into the woods of Verron. She was so excited to hear about the strange giant lizard that was bigger than an alligator, that she almost didn’t pay attention when the girls told her about watching the sunset with Chase and Daniel. Then it suddenly hit her, as she asked, “Woe, wait a minute. I was a bit distracted with the lizard thing. Did you just say you watched the sunset while orbiting Verron in outer space?” Both girls smiled at her sudden interest and answered, “Mom, it was the most beautiful thing we’ve ever seen. Chase and Daniel are incredible and way smarter than any boys we’ve ever met.” Fay could tell their father was listening as he approached the kitchen and added, “I have never been around two boys that treated us like ladies. Like dad always says, ‘most boys are just after one thing’ but Daniel and Chase are not like that. They want to teach us to scuba dive. Can we, please, please, please, Daddy?” Both parents looked at each other and back at their two almost grown girls. Mr. Morgensson smiled and answered, “OK, but I want to talk to Marcus before I let you go off with them scuba diving.” Fay looked at her dad and said, “We’re not taking a honeymoon trip to Cancun, Dad. Chase told us the lake behind the house is as good a place to learn as any. So you can sit on the deck and watch every move we make.” Jokingly, Kay picked up a pair of binoculars from the kitchen counter and handed them to their Dad, saying, “Here, just in case we get too far from shore. Sorry they won’t help much when we’re under water. I guess then you’ll just have to use your imagination.” Both girls kissed their parents goodnight, making a point of telling Dad that they loved him, and headed to wash the ocean water and sweat off before bed. They sat-up for hours talking about their day and how special Chase and Daniel were.